This is an often overlooked but nonetheless terribly important safety matter and, where safety matters, government and industry must be expected to invest in the resources required to make work safe.
In this particular scenario, the way forward is clear. When pilots conduct their daily inspections they must be accompanied by a small team of assistants holding a safety trampoline so that if at any time the pilot loses his footing, all he need do is jump onto the trampoline.
For those instances when the helicopter overnights away from its base, the trampoline must be folded and stored aboard the aircraft and the pilot tasked with recruiting suitable voounteers to shadow his daily inspection about the aircraft.
Simple really!
